Brian marched (quickly) to the beat of his own drum. Born in Teuton, MB to Marjorie Jean (Mader) and Rowland Threadkell, he grew up in Winnipeg. At 17 he ran away from home to work for the Hudson’s Bay Co. on the reserve at Brochette in northern MB. When he realized that he’d do better with an education he returned to school – but not always to classes because he was making so much money moving pianos. One summer he solo backpacked from Banff to Jasper with his dog. After university he graded fur until he became allergic to lynx. Returning to the north, he worked in natural resource management in what is now Nunavut, developing commercial fishing and hunting strategies. He met his wife, Ida Marie Friesen, at the fish plant in Rankin Inlet. They made their first home in Winnipeg where he started his consulting business which focussed on implementing the Manitoba Northern Flood Agreement. He especially enjoyed working with the people of Nelson House First Nation and his favourite project was the development of a wilderness camp to teach traditional skills. He was always bringing visiting northerners home for dinner or the weekend. When he moved to Salt Spring in 1990 the commute just got longer but the northerners still visited. His last project was turning a cull into a commercial caribou harvest which employed almost all the hunters in Coral Harbour, NT. This came to an end when the herd went out onto an ice shelf which broke off and floated out into Hudson’s Bay.

Brian could fix anything and he did so with a minimum of tools. With only a jigsaw he redid our entire house. He loved training his dogs and his daily hikes up and down Mt Erskine and Mt Maxwell. He loved playing the trumpet and the flute and stripping down his computer to make it do what he wanted. Perseverance, efficiency and the ability to quickly analyst systems and all things mechanical made him a gifted problem solver but not exactly a glad sufferer of fools.

Safely home.
Memorial service to be held at All Saints Anglican Church at 2:00pm on Tuesday January 15, 2019.

]]>https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/uncategorized/threadkell-ba-mnrm-brian-robert/feed/0Local village committee organizes Earth Day weekend clean-uphttps://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/uncategorized/local-village-committee-organizes-earth-day-weekend-clean-up/
https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/uncategorized/local-village-committee-organizes-earth-day-weekend-clean-up/#respondWed, 04 Apr 2018 16:52:51 +0000https://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/?p=54960By JEREMY MILSOM I would like to send a hearty “thank you” to Rowena Dixon for echoing in last week’s paper what I have been hearing daily (“Resident: Lower Ganges Road maintainance a disgrace”). Visitors and locals who come to Ganges often point out that the village has become more drab, dirty, unsafe to pedestrians […]]]>

By JEREMY MILSOM

I would like to send a hearty “thank you” to Rowena Dixon for echoing in last week’s paper what I have been hearing daily (“Resident: Lower Ganges Road maintainance a disgrace”).

Visitors and locals who come to Ganges often point out that the village has become more drab, dirty, unsafe to pedestrians and substantially under-maintained.

While I would like to be offended by this feedback, it is easier to embrace the obvious evidence and get started with a positive “self-help” plan of action that will make a difference.

After a presentation to the community-minded Chamber of Commerce, a local village committee (LVC) was formed with broadly based leadership and creativity, and a focus on improving village optics by providing three basic and achievable improvements:

• sweeping and cleaning;

• weeding and gardening;

• adding colour with flowers and painting.

A “call to action” will be featured in local news media, our MLA Adam Olsen has been invited, and arrangements are underway to schedule street sweeping machinery and dumpster services. Every resident and business in Ganges will receive an inspiring invitation to be involved in enhancing the village charm by making their property and road-front clean and colourful.

We have divided and mapped the village into small sections to help divide the tasks.

Volunteers from our community are being recruited to:

• “Ticket” vehicles with requests to park off-street on the scheduled night for the street sweeper activity;

• Swarm the village and dig out unsightly weeds, garbage and invasive species;

• Assist with sweeping sidewalks and around doorways;

• Bring tools and brooms and support other volunteers.

The day of action will coincide with the Earth Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22 with a “rain date” of April 28-29. It will end with recognition of achievements and prizes for the most notable improvements and for our supporting volunteers.

The Driftwood is also organizing a separate but complementary island-wide clean-up called Greening Salt Spring. (See details in this issue of the paper.)

By keeping it simple, we are actively looking for community-minded volunteers to join, guide and support this exciting opportunity to revitalize and refresh the face of our village. The results will make us all proud to be here and will establish a lasting impression for our community and impress our visitors.

As with every community, our village is the “beating heart” of Salt Spring. Ganges is the commercial, residential and cultural hub.

The original Salt Spring Official Community Plan stated that Ganges should be “a special place,” aesthetically pleasing” and “a place with special concern for people of all ages with particular concern for accommodating the elderly.”

With those thoughts and visions apparently lost, we look to a team of LVC supporters, who, as volunteers always instigate action to address needs and will create positive outcomes through their community-minded generosity.

We also look forward to seeing as many “helpers” as possible for the clean-up day team that will revitalize our Ganges village to its “special-place” position.